Al-Shabaab contacts with al-Qaeda and networks in the West

Germany’s Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) International Reports recently published a study titled “The Somali Shabaab Militias and Their Jihadist Networks in the West.”

The author, Dirk Baehr, is working on a Ph.D. on jihadism, processes of youth radicalization and strategies of de-radicalization. The study looks at al-Shabaab recruitment in the United States, Sweden, and Germany.

He argues that recruits from the Somali diaspora are today more useful for propaganda purposes and as suicide bombers. He expresses concern that al-Shabaab will develop into an international network.